User blog:SomeoneYouUsedToKnow/SYUTK's V4E10 - Guroyuri - Impressions/Recap
Youjo Senki is the best anime of the season. Deus lo Vult. ---- So, since I'm 99% sure we'll see a new Animalian location, and so far every damn place in Anima that isn't called Mistral is named after a flower, I decided to waste a bit of my time checking on Hanakotoba....the japanese language of flowers. Let's see: -Kuchinashi = Secret Love. Ren and Nora are going there.....oh my god, does it finally become canon? -Shion = Remembrance....well, we got Jaune talking about his good old days when his family went on intercontinental(?) camping trips right before we saw the ruins. And Ruby had some nightmares remembering Pyrrha's last moments. -Higanbana.... = Never to meet again...Lost Memory....Abandonment...I don't see how what happened in Higanbana has anything to do with it. Although, they are said to bloom when you see someone you will never meet again....like the waitress. -Oniyuri = Wealth...that village was an attempt by rich snobs to make a good town with a competent government (which failed because Neoliberalism gets you nowhere good). So, the final one, so far, is Kuroyuri...Love, and Curse. Mmm...I wonder what we'll see there. Curse can be taken as Qrow's Diabolus Ex Machina Semblance, and hopefully Love will NOT be Lancaster. ---- Language of Truth: Red means a fact, a truth, in the eyes of the user. Blue is an hypothesis, a guess, pondering, wondering. And now we begin. 1. Goodbye, and thanks for all the soup We begin our episode with Oscar Mayer and Ozpin Head. V4 10 00001.png|Hey Oz... V4 10 00002.png|Remind me why... V4 10 00003.png|I'm doing this again? Farmboi apparently gave up at some point, off screen, since now he's packing his stuff and leaving without saying anything or leaving a note, apparently. He and Blake would get along sooo well. ---- This is...something that's been mildly annoying me these last few episodes. With Weiss and Yang, I feel they skipped a bit much of their progress. With Yang we went from seeing her put the arm to 4 weeks later when she's already used to it. With Weiss we went from seeing her start to practice her Summons, to achieving a successful Summon. And now, we have the Compost King of Vale who went from "No, no, no, I'm not leaving, shut up" to "Alright, we're leaving, let me grab my stuff". There were no in-betweens when there should've been. We didn't see Yang having some trouble initially when fighting with the new arm (especially given she spent half a year without it). We didn't see Weiss failing at her first few attempts at summoning the Knight completely. We didn't see Oscar start to accept the idea of leaving. It feels....skippy. Rushed, in a way. I don't like that. ---- I can only imagine the reaction of his aunt. I wonder if Oscar Mayer even tried to tell her beforehand? Or if he at least gave a excuse like "I'm going to Signal!". Oscar expresses how scary it is not that he's leaving his home, going to Mistral, believing the little voice in his head......the scary thing is that he feels he's doing the right thing. And he has every reason to be scared of that....I feel that's one of the first few steps towards loss of personality. He may eventually become Ozpin in all but name and skin. As the rain arrives, Oscar reaches the train station and tries to pay the ticket. However... V4 10 00006.png|''Alright, let's buy the ticket...'' V4 10 00007.png|Oh, right, I'm broke. V4 10 00005.png|Hey Oz, could you share your Atlesian Bank Account? Before Oz can try to help Oscar by sharing his Atlesian Bank Account with him, Winnie the Pooh finally arrives in the show, after being absent since the very first episode. V4 10 00008.png|''Let me give you a hand.'' V4 10 00009.png V4 10 00010.png|''There you go'' V4 10 00011.png|''Don't let small obstacles stop you.'' V4 10 00012.png|''If the dog bites, punch the dog.'' See? Nicest guy under Salem. ....Of course, then he does nothing else for the rest of the episode. Better than Tukson, at least. 2. The Lilies of Black We return to Arse, now in Kuroyuri. V4 10 00016.png BadTurn.png|I inmediately regret this decision. As expected of a dead village, it's buildings are in a bad state, the trees are dead, the sun never comes and there's a slight mist all over the town. The buildings, however, are not too wrecked or anything. ---- This is another of the problems I have so far...IIRC, the WoR said the Grimm not only try to kill mankind, but also destroy their creations when possible. And yet, in the 3 villages we've seen so far that got rekt, all of their houses and such have not been truly rekt. It's like the Grimm come, kill everyone, but don't even try to damage anything else. The Grimm had failed to kill humanity for 2.8 Volumes, and now that they finally managed to wreck a Kingdom, they are now failing at property damage. Is it so hard to show a ruined village that's actually ruined? Now, being fair however, Kuroyuri looks MILES more ruined than Shion and Oniyuri. Broken windows and some shattered walls here and there. It's just not as wrecked as I would like, as it still looks too much like a Ghost Town than a Ruined Town to me. ---- Ruby and Jaune arrived there, carrying the deadman. They explore the city slowly, but there's nothing but ruin and ruin, with the ocasional abandoned object. No pharmacies or similar, and honestly using medicine from a semi-ruined hospital in a ghost town abandoned years ago is...not safe. They comment on how Ren didn't want to come here. Jaune says he has a good idea for why. His hometown got wrecked and Kuroyuri would remind him of it too much, hit too close to home. That's what I guessed at that very moment. V4 10 00019.png|Symbolic? After we see a dead flower on the ground, we cut to a flashback. 3. Perfectly Safe For Children We first see Kodomo Ren staring at a lotus... V4 10 00020.png|''I found a flower on the watah! :D'' ...before being saluted by a woman, I guess his mother... V4 10 00021.png ...who calls him "little Lie". Yes, Lie. Because obviously, his first name was not Ren. ---- ...What, you thought Ren was his first name because he followed eastern naming order because "he's Asian"? Even though every other character with asian name/looks didn't? Sucks to be you for bowing to Arkham's Razor. I told you all you shouldn't jump to that conclusion, but nooooo. ---- We first discover that Kodomo Ren was kinda....eh...cheery? ("I found a flower on the water! :D"). We also discover Kodomo Ren had britishy accent...somehow. Though I guess it's better than his mother saying Lie as "Lie" instead of "Lee-eh". He asks his mother if they can plant it in the garden, but she says no. Supposedly because "it lives here", probably because "I don't want it in my garden", maybe because "I don't think it can survive out of the water" (don't quote me on that). What she does say he can do, is take $20 and buy something for dad, who is apparently a Hunter. After some supposed sass (I'm not 100% sure saying "I think he wants a flower in the garden! :D" was sassy...not 100% sure what sass is exactly), he goes off to buy something for his dad. Without parental supervision. Just like in Japan. V4 10 00023.png|''I used to be quite a looker'' We get a wide shot of the village, and see that I was half-right...It's not just that Kuroyuri would have hit Ren too close to home...Just like in Japan. V4 10 00024.png He also finds out that just like in Japan, you can't buy anything with $20...Well, he's luckier than me and $20 is seemingly enough for... V4 10 00025.png|A toy wood hammer and sword! Obliterate your enemies with the might of the very nature! ...but I doubt his dad could do anything with it. I mean, the Grimm were like paper before, sure, but still. I mean, it's not even also a gun... He then goes to try to buy some Sake. Because letting kids buy alcoholic drinks all alone is perfectly safe. Just like in Japan. Thankfully the merchant's not an idiot like Mama Ren, and says... V4 10 00026.png|''No''. He then sees a bakery selling cakes made of Lotus flowers and breads made with cats. V4 10 00027.png|Those cute kitten faces kinda make eating the bread more guiltful... But before he can enter, he overhears a bunch of kids bullying a hobo kid holding a piece of bread. To be more specific, a hobo Nora holding a piece of bread. V4 10 00028.png V4 10 00030.png Eventually, Kodomo Ren is noticed by the trio, and for whatever reason suddenly has a panic attack and flees but crashes into his own dad. V4 10 00031.png V4 10 00032.png And if I have to say anything about his dad, is that he looks well-damn old. Really, Ren's mother looks about 30-ish to me, while he looks like 15-20 years older than her. You can even see the grey in his hair. He looks like a skunk. (Though he kinda has a Jedi face) His dad tells him that sometimes... V4 10 00033.png|''Doing nothing can be the worse action one can take'' Then he just tells him to go home and ditches him without even saying bye. Just like in Japan. 4. Not Your Fault (Maybe) We return to the Arse pair amidst the ruins of Kuroyuri. As expected, they still find nothing, and so return to Qrow who was left all alone by a dead tree in the middle of town. V4 10 00034.png|Jeezus Qrow, you really refuse to die. All of a sudden, they hear a....I'm not particularly sure what sound it's supposed to be. I can't tell if it's a scream or something nor from what. It sounds like a wailing tortoise raping a burning whale to me. V4 10 00035.png Jaune shits his pants and grabs his sword preparing for anything, though Ruby points out it still sounds far away...which as a Venezuelan, I can say it doesn't mean they're not doomed yet. ---- I recall the legends of El Silbón. "The Whistler", I think would be in english. El_Silbón.JPG It is said that if you hear him Whistling close by, that means he's far away. While if his whistle sounds far away, that means he's nearby and you're already dead, unless you get a dog to bark quickly enough (as dog barks seem to scare him). It's kinda like Slenderman besides that though... ---- After Jaune points out Ren and Nora are still out there (and thus, that thing may be far away from Arse but close to Renora), Ruby gets up and starts apologizing while blaming herself for dragging them into this. Jaune points out that despite losing her friends (and sorta her sister due to her melancholy), she still decided to come and make a difference. V4 10 00037.png|''You didn't drag us into this, you inspired us to follow you into it'' ...Which, arguably, does make it her indirect fault from a certain point of view. Now, this is a very touching scene, pretty heartwarming and all (though I wish it had more stressed-out yelling and venting), but I cannot like it. I can't. As long as Lancaster can become a thing and these 2 are stuck in the town with the Love meaning, I cannot take any advances in their relationship with a smile. 5. Bad Night, Good Bye We return to Lying Ren amidst the peaceful Kuroyuri night, lying on his bed sleeping. We hear the same sound we heard "before", though much louder. Ren's mother comes out and tells him they have to go. Adding 1 and 1, one can already tell shit got to town. As they approach the door Ren's father, apparently called Li, enters the house while breathing heavily. He tells Ren's mother, apparently called An, that they need to hurry. An says they should go to the safehouse, but Li says he saw "The Beast", and says that they need a Huntsmen...meaning Li isn't one like I thought. Kinda disapointed, the guy had a bow and everything. I thought he was a Hunter, not a simple hunter. And then An then tempts fate. V4 10 00040.png|''Everything's ok'' Everything is Ok.png|''Everything's Ok'' By the time Ren wakes up, we get a bleeding Li running as fast as he can while carrying Ren... V4 10 00041.png|''Goddammit son, you're heavier than I remember!'' ...before tripping. Meanwhile, the city is burning and The Beast's scream gained wolf-like growling noises. Li tells Ren to Run, before we get a glimpse of this new Grimm. V4 10 00043.png Nuckel1.png|They say things are scarier when you can't see them... It looks quite awesome and terrifying, a whole new level from the cheap dogs and teddies near Beacon. ---- Now, I have no idea what it's supposed to be. The Wiki says it's a Nuckelavee and I'm gonna go with that for now. It does, however, make things a bit interesting. The Nuckelavee is a Scottish sea monster, specifically Orcadian, and "the most horrible of all Demons in the Scottish Islands". As Orcadian folklore has strong scandinavian influence, the Nuckelavee is also Norse in origin. It's name is derived from Orcadian knoggelvi, meaning "Devil of the Sea". It has both equine and human elements in it's body, and a breath so foul it wilted crops and sickened livestock. It is responsible for droughts and epidemics. Descriptions of it's body are varied and inconsistent, but there's at least 1 "first-hand account" from a man, Tammas, who supposedly faced the beast. His description of it includes: -A human torso on a horse's back, resembling a rider, but without legs. -Arms that can reach the ground. -A large head, around 3ft in diameter, that rolls back and forth. -A second horse head on the equine body, with an enormous gaping mouth (think of a whale) that exudes a toxic vapour. -A single giant eye like a burning red flame in the horse head (which kinda makes it sound rather...freudian). -Fin-like appendages on the horse legs. (This is where it gets fun) -No skin whatsoever. Pale sinews and powerful muscles are fully visible and pulsating. -Black blood coursing through yellow veins. The finer details vary a lot, but with general traits like that one can get a good idea. Creepy, isn't it? It's amazing. And also a fun bit: Samuel Hibbert-Ware, antiquarian of the early 19th century, considered the "nuck" of the Nuckelavee's name to be cognate with the Latin necare, to kill... and with the Nick in Old Nick, a name sometimes given to the Christian Devil. Suddenly, Old Nick passing the SDC to Jacques makes far more sense. ---- Li tells Kodomo Ren to be brave and take action. He gives him his dagger (that is never ever seen or mentioned again since that day)... V4 10 00044.png|''Take this'' V4 10 00045.png|''Use it well'' ...And then gets up. Old Nick arrives and Li uselessly starts shooting arrows at it... V4 10 00046.png|''I may die today...'' V4 10 00047.png|''But my son will not!'' ...while Ren runs. After calming himself a bit, he sees the Nevermores flying around and Kiddo Nora scared shitless below a building. V4 10 00049.png Meanwhile, a Nevermore lands on top of the building and shows off their awesome new design. V4 10 00050.png Neovermore.png (Granted, it's just having some smoke on their feathers, but still). After getting another glimpse of Nuckelavee, Kodomo Ren starts crying (first time he does in the entire episode, actually. Yes, he didn't actually tear up before)...until some Aura lines suddenly shimmer around him as he loses color, and then he calms down by the time he regains color. V4 10 00053.png V4 10 00054.png He runs up to Nora and tells her that they have to be brave. Nora hugs him and then the same Aura shimmering effect happens, greying them and calming them both. The Nevermore on the roof fails to notice them, and leaves. V4 10 00055.png|''Be brave.'' V4 10 00057.png V4 10 00058.png|''I peek with my little eye....nothing.'' ---- Now, by now it feels clear that's his Semblance...and I feel it's obvious what it does: Zen Injection. He calms himself and others down. Either by literally calming them, or by supressing their emotions. Considering Grey is often used to symbolize lack of emotion, it may be the latter. Pretty useful, since being emotionless would help avoid being detected by Grimm. It would've been nice if it had been actually foreshadowed however. Closest thing we have is Nora greying out a bit in V3E1 in her depressive-melodramatic moment, but that's even worse foreshadowing than Ozpin's "you got silver eyes" line, as it implied nothing and could've been taken as part of the joke. ---- We get to see Nuckelavee's beautiful feet (and hands) as it passes by, also not noticing the Kodomo Renora. V4 10 00059.png|Such beautiful feet...and hooves. Ren notices the conveniently-placed wooden hammer the weapon-merchant showed him earlier and picks it up stealthily before giving it to Nora, telling her that... V4 10 00061.png|''We'll keep each other safe.'' Then they finally introduce themselves to each other, and almost-hilariously enough, Kodomo Ren's VA DOES pronounce "Lie" correctly, unlike An and Li. Then the flash back ends. No, we never find out just how they hell did the 2 manage to leave Kuroyuri alive. 6. The Approaching Devil We then cut to Ren and Nora on the windy mountain. ---- Before anything, I will point out...the mountain itself looks cheap to me. I mean, texture-wise. When I see the texture of the mountain, particularly the ones behind Ren in this shot, it doesn't look too good to me. It looks like something you would see in a low-budget production, or a game from the early 2000s. In fact I think I can make out the individual pixels in some places. The vegetation on the mountain V4 10 00064.png Once Ren examines it, he sees the symbol of... V4 10 00065.png|Shion... Shion. A village that's weeks away. Ren knows it means something's in there and rushes in. In there, Ren and Nora see tons and tons of weapons scattered everywhere. Very horrible weapons. As in, there's swords with 3D blades, instead of a flat 2D blade (which more or less ruins it's cutting capability). RectangleSwords.png|How can they even cut with blades like these? No wonder those people needed a Hunter, their blacksmiths are incompetent. Ren then notices an arrow with a peculiar design... V4 10 00068.png|''This...is one of my father's arrows...'' ...before turning his view and noticing the hoofprint we've seen before...then noticing multiple more hoofprints heading towards an exit. V4 10 00069.png|''Oh crap...'' V4 10 00070.png|''Oh crap...!'' As they move out of the cave they notice some trees shaking. They know fully well what is there, and the pair hold their hands (FINALLY) as they shit their pants at the realization. V4 10 00071.png V4 10 00072.png Conclusion Nice episode. We finally got a real example of Grimm, powerful Grimm, being almost-literal Nightmare Fuel, causing devastation and terrifying the people. I love creatures like it, things that induce that feeling of crawling horror. This will help me with an OC or 2. ---- Specifics: 1-I'm starting to feel the last 2 episodes are a bit rushed in plot progression. I just...feel like the plots haven't progressed much so far. Blake's and Ruby's have barely gotten anywhere, while Weiss, Oscar and Yang having their "dilemmas" and development skipped to the end without any in-betweens, making me feel they really are rushing things. At the same time, this Volume feels less like it's trying to get any resolution, and more like it just wants to build things up. It's not trying to get to any sort of finish line, but instead just ditch us in the middle of the road. ---- 2-RT needs to go out more with their dead villages. It doesn't look like the Grimm wrecked the place, it only looks like they killed everyone and then left. We need more REAL destruction. ---- 3-Am I the only one who finds Kodomo Ren kinda....dumb-looking? I mean, his voice sounds dumb for most of the episode, so it may have influenced me but, I just look at Ren as a kid...and he just looks a bit dumb. Especially at some points. To make it worse, throughout the episode the animation team fucked it up with his facial expressions. His VA expresses emotion pretty well, but his face...doesn't. For the most part he doesn't even show any tears of fear or put a good terrified face. ---- 4-My God, Qrow, WHY WON'T YOU DIE ALREADY. You're not even coughing anymore and yet you still refuse to freaking finally die or get better. Make up your mind already. ---- 5-An is such an awful parent...first she gives Ren an insignificant amount of money to buy something for Li. Then lets him run to the market and try to buy weapons and beer without supervision. Just like in Japan. ---- 6-...Say, where did Ren get his pink stripe on his hair? I mean, I assume the stripe itself was inherited from Li, but the color? An's hair is also pink (I think), but it's not the same kind of pink. ---- 7-Now that I think about it, while this episode gave a good explanation of Ren's past...it didn't show much of Nora's side. We see how they met, but not much of Nora's life beyond "bullied hobo". She was just...there, if you ask me. She was there to be there. Does she have any parents? She said her name was Nora, but just Nora, unlike Ren who gave his full name. Was she an orphan? Are her parents also "nameless"? Was she adopted by the Valkyries? We may never know. ---- 8-The Nuckelavee...kudos to the Scottish for thinking up something so awesome. I have great hopes for that thing, and I hope it doesn't end up like the Dragon: Petrified before it does anything besides moving around. I want it to wreck Arse if not RNJR. If Ruby tries to beat it with the Silver Eyes of God, I want them to fail to work, so they can't save their asses. I want them to not manage to kill it, only make it flee. ---- 9-Is it just me or is some of the animation for Ren at the end a bit...stiff? Particularly with the arms. ---- 10-Alright, Arse in Cursed Love, still no Curse, still no Love. Good. Renora not in Secret Love, still Secret, still no Love. Bad. Granted, they held hands so it's getting there, but it wasn't a handhold of love, more like one of "stay with me, I'm scared". ---- 11-I've heard quite a number of people say Ren is swimming in Death Flags right now. Personally, he is definitely not. The one swimming in Death Flags is Qrow. And the ones in real danger are Arse, towards which Nuckelavee is heading towards. ---- 12-Before the end of Oscar's scene(s), we see a train with some neon-blue lines glowing. V4 10 00013.png I've seen some people, mainly Chish, wonder if it's the "Cyan Dust" we've seen before......the one we've seen before making nothing but barriers. Chish herself, and maybe some others, wondered if it's "Literal Energy Dust". That would be redundant. Dust is already energy, especially Lightning Dust. It's like saying "This Sword is of the Blade element". Since we've seen that color do nothing but Barriers, perhaps they are just there to...do exactly that? Barriers to protect the train. -------- 13-Something I noticed shortly before posting this: Look at the bottle of sake by the left when Ren is going to buy some. V4 10 00026.png|The one on the left with the black symbol. Doesn't that symbol look....Familiar? CCLie Ren Emblem.svg|It's not 100% Identical, but pretty much 99%. Category:Blog posts